♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Hold out in the blackboard autum Sit down right where you want em High tide, on a yellow morning Besides all the good times are gone Homesick I left Cincinnati Take it just don't point it at me Right now might be all that matters Look out all the good times are gone ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Paintings on a wall so sober Night rings like a blanket over Your head, yeah it don't come easy We're blood red all the good times are gone All the good times are gone All the good times are gone All the good times are gone ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ All right, Mr. Dave, thank you.

I appreciate you being here, man.

Thanks for having me.

We caught your concert up in Grand Lake and - Cool little place.

It is a cool little place.

Like little sounds condescending, but it was like a small ish kind of venue, you know?

But on a beautiful, by the lake and it's so cool.

You've been around Colorado, I'm assuming, but you're from?

Minnesota.

Okay.

And specifically?

A child in Mankato, Minnesota, and then lived in Duluth, Minnesota for a long time, which is where our band started out.

Yeah.

Okay.

On Lake Superior.

Okay.

And it's on Lake Superior?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And Minnesota is full of lakes, right?

Yeah, that's kind of our, our signature dish, I guess, you know, land of 10,000 lakes.

I have read, but I'd love to hear from you that your - you have a pretty close relationship with nature and your family.

That was a big part of your upbringing.

As you're growing up and you're spending time in nature how does that start to inform what will become the future Dave Simonett and like the creativity?

That's kind of a big question, but, I know that spending a lot of time, real close, you know, to the earth or real close outside, camping, fishing, hunting, whatever, it allows my, my brain to kind of click back into a different tempo.

You know, as opposed to, like, walking around here, for instance, where or being on tour where there's a lot of, what my wife and I call clock time, right?

Where there's like, a lot of things are scheduled.

You go outside for a few days, you know, you kind of settle into more of the rhythm of the natural world, which, doesn't give you a specific time to eat lunch or go to bed or whatever.

And to me, that's a very liberating state of mind to attain and the older I get, the busier I get, the harder it is to find.

And that's the only place I've ever really found I could do it.

So I think that allows my brain a space to become creative instead of, thinking about, you know, all the myriad of other responsibilities adults have to think about.

We've had a career that's been, well, long, fruitful.

But, you know, we've had a real kind of slow, healthy growth in our in our band.

we started playing and then we just went on the road, and we've just been kind of on the road since slowly growing some places, you know.

So there was no, like, a rocket ship to fame or anything with our group, right?

So throughout all of this, 20 years, almost 25 years now, I still go home and do the dishes and my home life is very much, relatively unchanged for the last, for the last while.

And so it is, the balance is the hardest part, like, where does work end and where does the rest of your life begin?

That can be very blurry.

And so for me, I don't know that I've really I don't know that I found the ideal space there yet, but I've been getting closer and closer and closer throughout my life.

So, you know, now we tour, but we don't tour as heavily as we did when we were younger.

We found kind of a good balance there that, you know, keep.

Hey, I mean, this is the coolest job in the world and if something like that can get to a point of becoming tedious or not fun, then it deserves some attention, you know?

So I try to make, the time out here on the road, worth as much as possible.

And then the time at home focused completely on home stuff.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Starting over ain't so bad Not the home you thought you had Amputating heart to heart, burn it to the ground Make the beds up, go to work Fall to pieces, have you heard?

Prairie breaking full of nerve Let's get out of town Oh, it's draining a change of pace Hasty visions hide your face Don't let go Don't let go ♪ ♪ Clouds above me, clouds below Where'd you come from?

Where'd you go?

Wear your boots out on the road, you could break my heart At the airport up all night Blurry vision what a sight Get me through just one more night then I'll turn it off Sure as hell I'll get back to you Pieced together ran right through Don't let go Don't let go Don't fool around and fall apart Silhouette dreams right from the start ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Cards that play now, let me stay now I've been gone so far away I still stay up much too late, here we go again I found love it was for free Singing oceans drowning me Can you hear it?

Can you see?

You could break my heart My address you know it don't change Out of time, out of range Don't let go Don't let go Don't let go Don't let go ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Hey Grand Lake.

Thank you.

♪ ♪ Sorry I was following another Yeah, I heard it from your brother Before you even called Empty Yeah, this house is empty Like before you even met me We're not like that at all I woke up You were gone Come back home Come back home Come back home to me Good times They were market in the sensor Yeah I remember dealing records Bringing it all back home Power Is comin' through the shower And the lightning marks the hours And now I'm all alone I woke up You were gone Come back home Come back home Come back home to me ♪ ♪ Sorry I was over you were under And you know it makes me wonder Why I'm still here at all Silence How I curled up inside her Closely following behind her Trying not to fall I woke up You were gone Come back home Come back home Come back home to me Come back home Yeah come back home Why don't you come back home ♪ ♪ I want to understand what that process is like for you.

When you're coming up with songs that, for me, feel like longing or maybe even self-doubt or catharsis or being alive or like you've got a big wide spectrum, I guess is the point.

Well, I think I use songwriting as, as, a mode of communication in that way.

I hate to use the word like therapy because it's maybe a little off the mark, but for me, it is it is a way to explore, all sorts of places.

I've always tried to, maybe describe more of a time and place and it might maybe lean a little abstract sometimes.

When I listen to your music and I, I've been way off before, but the things that come to me are things like, a certain yearning.

Victory, for example, was very much there's an aliveness to it, like the song ends and I'm just, like, left on this rush of, like, I feel alive right now.

That's great.

And I have overcome something in that narrative, but I'm wondering what it is like for you as you're being generative about that stuff and the sort of the creative torture that goes on.

The torture part for me is like, is writing, and I love it.

And every writer I know that I've talked to goes through something similar, but it can be a real hard thing to do and to keep doing and to keep searching for new places to explore, new ways to write a three minute song that rhymes.

You know what I mean?

After 20 some years, you're like, well, what else do I have to say?

So for me, that's the struggle part is, is the creative process.

The joy is when you get that piece of work to a place that you're really happy about, that you're proud of, and that you're ready to kind of share with everybody, which is the, the scariest part of my job, really.

The creative part of it, like the writing part of it is, for me, is the part I like the most and the part I'm most interested in and the part that I explore the most and really, the point of all of this for me.

I mean, I started playing guitar and singing as a vehicle to write songs, you know what I mean?

Community, has been a big, a big part of my artistic life.

And I have to think about it when I say that because I generally do most of my work completely alone.

I've only recently started writing songs with other people, which is a pretty common practice for a lot of songwriters.

But, I used to, like, especially before I had kids, I would kind of go sequester myself in a cabin or some place off the beaten path, off the grid half the time to write.

Yeah.

For me, like the creative, the writing part is very personal.

But when it comes to bringing that anywhere outside of my own brain, it takes a community, right?

Yeah.

Fans of the music is a community, that that we have a relationship with now for a long time.

The group of guys that's on the road, people we work with, all of our families together, all of that man.

It all takes the support of all of that to make even one show happen.

Yeah.

Victory was actually, started and ended up becoming about because that was the song I took like a year to write.

I remember I don't remember every song, but that one that sticks out to me, particularly because it took so damn long.

But it was when we were expecting, my daughter Lucy.

And, the idea of victory in that way for me was that we, we made a person, you know what I mean?

Yeah.

And it's like the most common thing in the world.

But, it's obviously a huge deal for everybody that does it and so that was like, it was more like the mood I was in at the time.

And so I was exploring that.

And there's not a lot of like lyrics in there about I didn't even know her yet, you know, but about, you know, pregnancy or anything.

But that was where the victory came from.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ All of us lonely, it ain't a sin To want something better, than the shape you're in The rain came at the break of day Your light in the window pane said,"Come on in" Its a broken heart, babe, I know the sound It feels like your hands are nailed to the ground And it will pass just like everything else You won't let it get to me, the next time around Its a hard-earned victory The life that came from you to me Could never be wrong Hey!

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Grown from a moment and a million miles Here lies the stardust and it slowly dies Borrowed from nothing, come back half alive And the stars, they whisper "Blessings be" As you walk by ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Codeine was a complete rip off of a Townes Van Zandt song where he had a line.

It's a it's a lot slower, but it was codeine, you're the nicest thing I've seen or whatever and I'm a big fan.

And there's a kind of an old folk music tradition of taking a like a tagline from a another song and putting it in yours.

And it it's thought of as like passing it along.

I didn't know that.

Yeah it's interesting.

So a lot of old folk songs have similar phrases in there, one phrase from an old song that they knew and they put it in.

Oh, cool.

“Make me a pallet on your floo” is one.

There's all sorts of little lines like that that keep going down.

And so when I was writing that song, it was personal experience, but then for the chorus, I was like, oh, I want to use that Townes Van Zandt line as like, as you know, openly, I'm not.

It's not the same song, but just it's a little bit of a shout out to it.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Well, I ain't your baby, I ain't your baby now Them holy rollers got kicked right out of town It's dark where I've been stayin' Don't you worry, come on in Well, I've finally found a friend I've found a friend Codeine, Codeine You're the nicest thing I've seen For a while For a while Well you hold my hand as I step into the room And all these people, they'll all be fading soon Well, it's whisper time remembered Through armored thorns and knives And it's all that I've got left To hold onto Codeine, Codeine You're the nicest thing I've seen For a while For a while ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Well you can keep your dusty bottle on your shelf And you can keep your words of wisdom to yourself I love you darling so Why can't you just let me go Before you find me hanging in my cell Codeine, Codeine You're the nicest thing I've seen For a while For a while Codeine, Codeine You're the nicest thing I've seen For a while For a while ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ With your feet in the air and your head on the ground Try this trick and spin it, yeah Your head'll collapse, if there's nothing in it And then you'll ask yourself Where is my mind?

Where is my mind?

Where is my mind?

♪ ♪ Way out in the water, see it swimming Well I was swimmin' in the Caribbean Animals were hiding behind a rock Except the little fish, he told me, I swear, he was trying to talk to me, coy koi Where is my mind?

Where is my mind?

Where is my mind?

Way out in the water, see it swimming ♪ ♪ With your feet in the air and your head on the ground Try this trick and spin it, yeah Your head'll collapse, if there's nothing in it And you'll ask yourself Where is my mind?

Where is my mind?

Where is my mind?

Way out in the water, see it swimming ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ When we decided to kind of do this full time, it was a big decision to do that and for us, we were making whatever little money we were making was touring.

And so we couldn't really tour and have day jobs at the same time.

It became a point where one of those things had to go.

And I know a lot of bands come to this point.

Let's try to do music as our full time career.

Okay?

We all quit our jobs.

We all went on the road, and there was a lot of times in there that were really stressful, right?

Because the bills don't go away.

You know, our partners back home, whatever, they're working.

And so I think, like, that little blip of time, which on one hand was such a great adventure and I would never undo it.

It was so cool and exciting, and it felt really, felt like we were doing something courageous, you know, on the other hand, it was, it was it was hard to navigate and thankfully we all did it together.

And everybody that was in the band at that time is still in the band now, but I think that was probably the hardest, the hardest time I've had at it.

I always get a little scared to get too settled in, because I know how how quickly this could, you know, this could not be around anymore.

It could change very fast or whatever, so it's never really felt safe.

But then again, I don't think I ever would anywhere.

I've always felt like this is a this is still a very exciting thing.

I don't I don't ever count on it beyond, you know, like the show that we're about to play, kind of.

Like I said, man, life, life is full of surprises, you know?

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Come into the world alone And you go out of the world alone But in between, theres you and me Oh-oh Oh-oh-oh-oh ♪ ♪ The summer breezes blow so tall And the winter nights are cold and so long But inbetween the falling leaves Oh-oh Oh-oh-oh-oh ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ The days and nights are killing me The light and dark are still in me But there's an anchor on the beach So let the wind blow hard And bring a falling star Oh-oh Oh-oh-oh-oh Oh-oh-oh-oh ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Late night Midnight on the interstate And I didn't feel so great Until I saw the city And I was younger And open like a child Man, it's been a while Since I felt that way More and more I hesitate 'Cause I don't know ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Happy Birthday You didn't want to celebrate And I was an hour late And you fell apart Mostly sober Sometimes I change my mind And I don't have the time No, we never do Love and love and nothing else It's all I need ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Whiskey, won't you come and take my troubles?

Cause I can't seem to do it on my own In the morning there is hours and infinity The starlit evening's come to take me home I ain't got a dime in my pocket And I just stepped on my last cigarette But there's a bar downtown that'll give me credit A home away from home, and away I went ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Tomorrow there's a train to Carolina And tomorrow that's where I'm gonna go Feel the warm sunshine on my shoulders And live my days a free and easy soul ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ My home is with the hills and trees around me My ceiling holds the moon and stars above So I'll never be a lonely man a'walking I'll never live one day without love So whiskey, won't you come and take my troubles Cause I can't seem to do it on my own In the morning there is hours and infinity The starlit evening's come to take me home The starlit evening's come to take me home I'm aware that you've done some things to help young artists, specifically in Minnesota, like the grant I think you established.

Yeah.

Okay.

So if a young artist, who's in a place where they're trying to figure out whether to take that leap and go out on whatever it is and they're watching this right now, what do you say?

What do you say to them?

Yeah, it's it's tough because everybody's everybody's situation is different.

Right.

I would first just say give it a shot because why not?

You know?

I mean, people people love to tell young people that you only get one life.

And you said you know, do this while you can because it doesn't last forever or whatever, but it's really true.

And, I tell my kids that, too, now, even though, you know, they're a little young to be picking their careers, but just like, what's the worst that could happen?

You know?

Through this lifestyle and they, you know, they come out and join the circus once in a while, too.

My kids, have gotten to see that doing something like this is it's not just like a dream or something, but it's actually possible.

Being a songwriter for a living or whatever might seem like a nice fantasy, but for them, they can come out and see that this is a real thing and most people out there that try it regret not trying it more probably.

And I think that one thing that you can hold on to, even if it doesn't work out, even if you end up not liking it, you want to do something else.

At least you tried it, you know?

And it's it's, it's can be the most rewarding life in the world really being being in a creative field.

It can it's never going to be easy, but it can be really, really rewarding and really fulfilling.

Wait So Long to me in my writer's brain sticks out because it's the only song I've ever written front to back in one sitting.

Only one.

No editing.

And it was in the van.

We were touring in a van, and I was lying down on a bench seat and we were driving through Nevada.

And I remember this because it was very long drive overnight, and I was sitting there with a headlamp on and I was writing, and I also quite possibly the only song I've ever written without a guitar in my hand.

Usually I have to sing along and I just wrote the whole thing.

It just came pouring out.

And then I plucked it on a guitar the next morning or the next day, or wherever we were.

And, still the same.

When it comes like that, you know, Neil Young is one of my favorite songwriters, talks a lot about being, like, a conduit more than a writer or whatever.

I don't go that far with it, but I get it.

And once in a while it works in a way where you're like that- it's not how I ever work.

And somehow it worked out and, you know, became our most, still our most popular song.

So, you know, makes you think [chuckles] I should stop working so hard.

It was really fun.

I remember feeling so good about it, and not even, you know, I hadn't even sung it, or I didn't even know if it really worked musically yet.

Didn't even have chords for it or anything, and just but just writing it and being like, wow, I wish I could write songs in this van every day.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ I could never pretend that I don't love you You could never pretend that I'm your man That's exactly the way that I want it That's exactly the way that I am And you call me in the morning with your troubles Takin' it downtown every night I could never place the star at night above ya I got my hands on the ground And you know I'm right You wait so long You wait so long You wait so long You wait so long ♪ ♪ It's a coffee stained earth ever time it happens Liven up honey it ain't that bad Any afterthought rose to recognition Like every other coffin that I had And your Buick broke down in Winnemucca Fall to your knees and you pray to the lord Then you take up hope at the politicians Nothing happens in this burnt out town anymore You wait so long You wait so long You wait so long You wait so long ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ And your heart rolls on like a frozen freight train You know that I help you if I can But I'm just a raindrop in a river Just a little itty-bitty grain of sand And you know that I'm doomed to repeat this With all the bad habits that I've learned But it's better than your fiber 'n fornication And all the dirty money that you earn You wait so long You wait so long You wait so long You wait so long You wait so long You wait so long You wait so long You wait so long ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪